"I am going to qualify — no, I WILL qualify!"
That was what he had told himself walking into the forest. Full of fire. Ready for anything.
That was seven hours ago.
Right now Lucas was twelve feet up a tree, arms and legs wrapped around the trunk like his life depended on it, which it kind of did, watching three mana beasts circle the ground below him with the patience of things that had nowhere else to be.
[You know? for someone who gave that speech about winning, you really do look like a very stressed squirrel.]
"Shut up," Lucas said through his teeth.
[A wet one.]
"I said shut UP."
He shifted his grip on the bark and glared down at the creatures below. They were big. Bigger than he'd expected from the entrance, and they moved wrong, too smooth, too deliberate, like something wearing the shape of an animal without quite getting it right. One of them had already thrown a fireball. An actual fireball. Like it was nothing. Like fireballs were just something you did.
"Okay," he said, more to himself than to the screen. "In my defense, you saw those things, right? Their stats are way above mine. They're throwing spells around like casually. I don't even know one basic spell. Not one. So honestly-"
[Scared.]
"I prefer strategically elevated."
[You're in a tree.]
"I'm in a tactically superior position."
[You're literally hugging the bark.]
Lucas closed his eyes briefly. "Sometimes I think you're not a system. I think you're just a curse someone put on me specifically."
[Thank you.]
"That wasn't a compliment!"
The beasts below eventually lost interest and moved on, disappearing deeper into the trees. Lucas waited another full minute just to be safe. Then he let himself slide down the trunk and dropped onto the forest floor, landing in a crouch.
The forest stretched in every direction. Tall trees, heavy canopy, light coming through in broken strips. Somewhere far behind him were the academy gates. Out here there was nothing but the sound of the wind and whatever was living between the trees.
His stomach made a sound that was frankly embarrassing.
"Gods," he muttered, pressing a hand to his stomach. "Seven hours. It's been seven hours and I haven't eaten anything." He looked around at the forest like it owed him something. "If I don't find food soon, I won't even need a mana beast to kill me. I'll just die standing here."
Then he saw them.
Red and purple, bright against the green. A berry bush maybe thirty meters away, absolutely loaded, practically glowing. Lucas stared at it for a full second.
Then his face broke into the biggest grin he'd had all day.
"FOOD—"
He was already running.
He almost made it.
Three meters from the bush he stopped dead.
There was already someone there.
A goblin. Small, green, crouched right in front of the bush with both hands full of berries, shoveling them into its mouth with the relaxed energy of something that had found the perfect spot and intended to stay there a while. It hadn't noticed him. It was just eating. Happily. His berries.
Lucas ducked behind the nearest tree.
"You absolute little—" he hissed, peering around the trunk. The goblin grabbed another handful. Lucas's eye twitched. "That is my food. Those are my berries. I spotted them first. I ran for them. And this little — this — "
[So, Are you going to fight it or just watch it eat?]
Lucas chewed his lip. The honest answer was neither the honest answer was finding different berries but before he could say that, something clamped around his body.
Invisible. Total. He couldn't move his arms, couldn't step forward, couldn't do anything except stand there frozen behind a tree while the goblin kept eating his berries.
"Wait-! I know this! don't tell me-"
A message appeared.
[Task: Kill the Goblin (E-Rank) — 0/1]
A pause.
[Penalty: Immediate death if not completed.]
Lucas stared at the words.
"You're joking," he whispered.
The pressure on his body said it was not joking.
He was released a second later. He stood there for a moment, jaw tight, looking at the goblin, looking at the message, looking at the goblin again.
"Fine," he said quietly. "Fine. Okay."
He spotted a stone near his foot. Decent size. Heavy enough to matter. He picked it up with both hands, took a breath, and started moving — low, slow, stepping carefully, placing each foot like his life depended on it, which again, it kind of did.
'Okay. Okay. Easy. Just get close. One good hit. You've got this.'
He was almost there.
His foot came down on a stick.
The crack was so loud in the quiet forest that Lucas actually winced. 'Shit!'
The goblin whipped around instantly.
Green eyes, sharp and mean, locked straight onto him. The creature hissed, skittered back from the bush, claws up, teeth out, the whole vibe shifting from "snacking" to "extremely unhappy about being interrupted."
Lucas stood there with a rock in both hands.
"Hey," he said. "Hey, look, I- sorry, I didn't mean to—" He caught himself. "Wait- Why am I apologizing to a goblin."
[Because you are an idiot.]
The goblin launched itself at him.
Lucas had about half a second to register that it was fast — way, way faster than it looked — and then it was already there and claws raked across his forearm and the pain hit like a hot wire dragging through skin.
"AARRGH—"
He stumbled backward, grabbing his arm. Blood was already soaking through his sleeve. The goblin landed, turned, and looked at him with something that was unmistakably satisfaction. It actually smirked. A goblin smirked at him.
Lucas turned and ran.
The goblin appeared in front of him.
He hadn't even seen it move. It was just there, between him and any direction that wasn't here, claws raised. Lucas threw a punch out of pure desperation —
The goblin's claws were faster. Two lines of fire tore across his chest and he went down hard, hitting the dirt, and the pain was bad enough that for a second he couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything except lie there shaking while the world tilted sideways.
The goblin stood over him.
Lucas looked up at it. Blood dripping from his arm and his chest, hands trembling, the stone long gone somewhere in the grass.
"Please," he said. His voice cracked. He didn't care. "Please- stop- it hurts, it really hurts, I'm not- please- someone- anyone—"
He was crying. Actually crying, tears and blood and dirt, lying in the middle of an academy forest begging a goblin to stop.
'I don't want to die. Not here. Not like this. Not to this.'
The goblin raised its claw for the last hit.
And Lucas saw its foot.
Right there. Three inches from his face. One foot planted wrong, weight forward, completely open.
He didn't think about it. He just kicked.
Everything happened fast. The goblin pitched forward, lost its balance, came down on top of him, and their heads cracked together with a sound that made Lucas see white for a second. Pain exploded through his skull. But the goblin was on the ground now, groaning, disoriented, and Lucas was already moving.
He got on top of it.
And he swung.
"THERE — TAKE THAT — AND THAT—"
His fists came down again and again, no technique, no skill, just pure desperate violence, and his knuckles split open somewhere in the middle of it and that hurt too but he didn't stop, couldn't stop, the goblin was weakening under him and stopping meant dying and he was not dying here, not on the ground in a forest, not to this—
He grabbed the stone.
Both hands shaking. Arms burning. He lifted it up.
Brought it down.
The crack of it echoed through the trees.
Then silence.
Lucas dropped the stone. Sat back. Looked at his hands cut up, bleeding, a mess. Looked at his arm. His chest. Everything hurt. Everything was still bleeding. He had nothing left. He could feel it — his body just empty, wrung out, done.
He lay back on the ground slowly and stared up at the canopy.
"I guess," he whispered, "this is it for me."
He closed his eyes.
A familiar screen appeared.
___________________
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[Congratulations — Goblin defeated.]
[+5 Experience → 5/40 to Level 2]
[Stats increased:]
[Mana: 10 → 15]
[Strength: 4 → 5]
[Agility: 3 → 5]
[Defense: 5 → 6]
[Stamina: 7 → 9]
[Reward acquired: Whisperfang]
[Type: Dagger — Rarity: Uncommon]
[Player health regeneration in progress…]
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